Nabiki and her broken destiny
by NickNova
Summary: Nabiki realizes whats wrong with her life.


Nabiki's broken destiny  
  
Disclaimer: I own none of these characters.  
  
Nabiki was pissed off she was furious and she had no ideal why. She had been irritable all day. (Ranma took one look at her and went the other way) Reading her manga didn't calm her even handling and making money didn't make her feel like it usually did.   
  
Hours later  
  
Nabiki was in the dojo, staring at the sheathed blade her mother had gave to her before she died. As she held the sword she knew what was wrong. She eased only three-quarters of the blade from the sheath to examine the blade, It was still has beautiful as the day her mother gave it her. At the time she had been studying Iaijutsu and she was good very good. She could remember overhearing….  
  
*Flashback*  
  
Kimiko came into the house she had left Nabiki practicing her different forms and strikes.  
  
"Soun, you have to come and see this?" Kimiko's voice was energetic to say the least  
  
"Wha?" Soun got out as he was dragged out to the dojo  
  
Once they got to the dojo Soun could see why his wife was exciting.  
  
There was Nabiki standing in the middle of the dojo practicing Iaijutsu forms.  
  
"Look at her Soun her skill with the sword increases everyday and her speed is equal to mine."  
  
"Quite so she'll give Saotome's son a run for his money."  
  
"She has already learn and adapted many of the forms to suite her form and speed." Kimiko went on completely ignoring her husband  
  
"The training trip your father took her on increased her skill ten-fold." Soun scratched his chin looking quite thoughtfully "Maybe I will take Akane-chan on one." He walk away leaving his wife staring at their second youngest daughter.  
  
"Incredible" Nabiki had just ripped threw several of the training dummies with only air pressure and had resheathe the sword before the dummies could hit the ground  
  
Kimiko continued to watch her daughter practice for the rest of the night.  
  
.  
  
*Kill Flashback*  
  
But that was all in the past and her mother had soon died of some rare disease. Before her mother had died she was preparing to go on another training trip with her grandfather.  
  
"Hmph" Nabiki's laugh held no amusement. Back then the sword was her life and campanion and her only connection to her mother most of the time.  
  
Nabiki look at the sword admiring its razor sharp blade, she sheathes the katana and took a deep breath and began a slow and simple kata her grandfather taught her when she first visited him.  
  
The moves came naturally; the sword was apart of her very soul. More of her training came back to her and she started remembering lessons her grandfather had taught her during their four-year training journey.  
  
*Flashback*  
  
An old man stood in the front of the dojo he was wearing a white gi top with large red hakama pants giving him an ancient look to go along with his white hair.  
  
A younger Nabiki stood in a dojo going through a kata based on speed and defense, while an older man watches over her.   
  
"Come on Nabiki, the sword is apart of your very soul. Show it the respect it deserves."  
  
"Yes, Sensei."  
  
The old man watched again as Nabiki went through the kata again this time with almost twice the speed as she unconsciously tapped her Ki to make her arm faster.  
  
*End*  
  
Totally immersed in her practicing she forgot about everything around her preferring to only to be immersed in her kata.  
  
*Upstairs In the guest room*  
  
Ranma couldn't sleep he had been having nightmares about Saffron for almost two weeks now.  
  
"Man stupid dreams, stupid bird boy, stupid china." Ranma muttered as he got up and stumbled down the stairs  
  
Deciding to practice until he dropped and hopefully get some sleep.  
  
Ranma walk into the dojo in only his black pants as he entered the dojo and saw Nabiki of all people engage in a dance to the death with a katana. He had only seen few masters move like that, and her speed was amazing most of the time he could only see glimpses of the blade.   
  
He decided to wait for her to break out of the trance and notice him. He knew what it was like to be interrupted.  
  
**********  
  
Nabiki was just bringing the kata to an end when she spotted Ranma sitting in the corner of the dojo gaping at her.  
  
"Hello Ranma." She slid the sword back into the sheath and swayed viciously and hit the floor before Ranma could catch her.  
  
When Ranma reach her position her entire body was covered in sweat.  
  
Ranma lifted her into his arms and instantly wanted to drop her.  
  
"Damn Nabiki you stink."  
  
**********  
  
Later on that night Nabiki awoke to find herself in bed dressed in her nightclothes.  
  
"I fainted." Nabiki laugh to herself.  
  
'I use to could do that kata for hours on end now I can barely kept it up for an hour.'  
  
Nabiki closed her eyes again.  
  
'But during that hour I have never felt so alive.' Nabiki moaned remembering the excitement of going through the kata and remembering her days and months with her grandfather in their secluded mountain dojo.  
  
~A week later~  
  
On nights when Ranma couldn't sleep he always went and work off his energy with aerial and speed Kata's. But this night was different because when he got to the dojo it was already occupied by a bokken wielding Nabiki.  
  
15 minutes into the routine she stops and redid several steps.   
  
Ranma could see where the attacker was meant to be and recognize the move was based entirely on speed. Something he excelled in.  
  
Nabiki held the bokken loosely and the tip was almost touching the ground. Nabiki took off from a dead stop the bokken slashing through her imaginary enemies with diagonal slashes and a vertical slash for the last attacker.  
  
The entire sequence looked flawless to Ranma but he wasn't a master with the sword or anything.  
  
When she redid the move several more times Ranma realizes instead of fighting three opponents there were five of them.  
  
"What's wrong Nabiki?" Ranma asked from his sitting position in the dojo  
  
Nabiki sighed and sat down next to Ranma. "When I trained with my grandfather he also took on a few other students, one of the students was a older boy named Ichiro and when we all sparred together he always won." Nabiki sighed again seeming to sink deeper in the memory "So I adjusted a kata just to counter him."  
  
"What happened?" Ranma asked still puzzled   
  
"I still lost." Nabiki grab the bokken pointed to the center of the dojo "He had this weird move where he could disappear from behind me and reappear either in front of me or on the side." Nabiki bring the bokken to her side "It drove me NUTS because I was fast with my strikes and stances but there was nothing I could do."  
  
Ranma laughed "What you do get mad and hit him with a mallet?   
  
Nabiki gave him her lopsided smirk. "Unlike Akane I do try to learn from my mistakes, so I trained harder."  
  
"What made you want to continue your training?" Ranma asked totally serious   
  
Nabiki walked over to the wall and sat down next to Ranma and brings her knees up to her chest.  
  
"I'm not entirely sure, but whenever I pick up the sword it's like I can feel her presence and she's next to me giving me pointers and corrections on the forms."  
  
"I don't think I ever took out the time to grieve for her you know." Nabiki voice was angelic and soft but so full of pain it made Ranma's heart hurt  
  
The silence was broken by a quiet sob, and Ranma recognize that Nabiki, Ice Queen of Furinkan High was actually crying. Ranma didn't know any type of words to sooth her or make the pain go away so he just did what he could, he hugged her and gave her the physical support she needed. Soon they both was asleep in each other's arms. 


End file.
